Some Auckland schools are now hiring counsellors specifically to help students struggling with the effects of social media.
At Riverina Primary School in east Auckland, principal Bryce Mills says children as young as eight are encountering troubling online content. The small school of about 150 students has already brought in a counsellor to help students work through the fallout.
Teacher Saasha Jolley says many pupils talk about spending evenings scrolling Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or playing online games like Roblox. The conversations they hear online often show up in the classroom the next day.
“They heard it from their friend or they heard it from this person online, so they thought that it was okay to say,” Saasha explains.
Some of the material circulating among students includes sexual content and real world violence. Bryce says the school even pays about $3,000 a year for extra online security tools, but once children leave school the situation is out of their hands.
One parent recently discovered just how easy it is for kids to get back online late at night. Bryce says the parent woke up at 1am and noticed a glow coming from a bedroom.
“Their daughter had gone out and got the phone off the dining room table and was on their phone.”
The challenge is not limited to primary schools. At Whangaparāoa College, principal Steve McCracken says the school hired the equivalent of five counsellors last year to support teenagers affected by social media.
The cost runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Steve believes much of the pressure comes from what students see online.
“I think that it is largely driven by social media and what they see is cool, the people that they see online with rich backgrounds and fast cars and all the bling.”
The growing concerns come as politicians consider whether New Zealand should follow Australia’s lead and ban social media access for under 16s.